Would You Treat Your HIV With a Monthly Injection Instead of Daily Pills?

Would You Treat Your HIV With a Monthly Injection Instead of Daily Pills?

This past summer, the pharmaceutical company ViiV Healthcare announced that the latest leg of its ATLAS trial had found that its monthly injectable two-med regimen worked just as well over six months to get HIV to undetectable as the typical contemporary three-drug regimen you pop daily by mouth at home.

A study released earlier this year found that those taking the drug in trials considered the mild side-effects -- including brief injection-site bruising like after getting a typical shot -- a small price to pay for not having to take HIV meds or think about one's HIV status every day, not to mention hiding one's HIV meds.

More data on the injectable, which combines the drugs rilpivirine (Edurant) and cabotegravir, will likely come out later this year.

Meanwhile, we asked eight diverse HIV-positive folks (nine, really!) from around the country whether they'd consider switching to an injectable. We even asked a bonus question!

Anyway ... what do you think about injectables versus orals? Share this on social and start a conversation!

Tim Murphy has been living with HIV since 2000 and writing about HIV activism, science and treatment since 1994. He writes for and has been a staffer at POZ, and writes for the New York Times, New York Magazine, Out Magazine, The Advocate, Details and many other publications. He is also the author of the NYC AIDS-era novel Christodora.

This past summer, the pharmaceutical company ViiV Healthcare announced that the latest leg of its ATLAS trial had found that its monthly injectable two-med regimen worked just as well over six months to get HIV to undetectable as the typical contemporary three-drug regimen you pop daily by mouth at home.

A study released earlier this year found that those taking the drug in trials considered the mild side-effects -- including brief injection-site bruising like after getting a typical shot -- a small price to pay for not having to take HIV meds or think about one's HIV status every day, not to mention hiding one's HIV meds.

More data on the injectable, which combines the drugs rilpivirine (Edurant) and cabotegravir, will likely come out later this year.

Meanwhile, we asked eight diverse HIV-positive folks (nine, really!) from around the country whether they'd consider switching to an injectable. We even asked a bonus question!

Anyway ... what do you think about injectables versus orals? Share this on social and start a conversation!

Tim Murphy has been living with HIV since 2000 and writing about HIV activism, science and treatment since 1994. He writes for and has been a staffer at POZ, and writes for the New York Times, New York Magazine, Out Magazine, The Advocate, Details and many other publications. He is also the author of the NYC AIDS-era novel Christodora.

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